ARTICLES ABOUT INSPECTORS BY DATE - PAGE 2

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - More Syrian chemical weapons materials were loaded onto ships and transferred out of Syria on Monday, a joint inspection mission run by the United Nations and the global chemical arms watchdog said. The chemical weapons components will eventually be destroyed aboard a specially equipped U.S. ship. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's decision in September to give up chemical arms helped him avoid possible U.S. air strikes on government positions in retaliation for a poison gas attack near Damascus in August that killed hundreds of people, many of them women and children.

* Waste unit built for base in Paktika province, SIGAR says * Facility completed nine months before base returned to Afghans * Incinerators already taken down, presumably for scrap By David Alexander WASHINGTON, Dec 16 (Reuters) - The U.S. military paid a contractor $5.4 million for an incinerator facility at a base in Afghanistan, even though it was finished 30 months behind schedule and had so many wiring issues it was never used, federal investigators said on Monday.

VIENNA/DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran will grant U.N. inspectors "managed access" to a uranium mine and a heavy-water plant within three months as part of a cooperation pact reached on Monday that aims to allay concern about Tehran's nuclear program. It was signed by U.N. nuclear agency chief Yukiya Amano in Tehran after Iran and six world powers came close to a preliminary nuclear agreement during broader talks in Geneva at the weekend and decided to meet again on November 20. The sets of negotiations are separate but both center on fears that Iran may be seeking the capability to build nuclear weapons, a charge it denies.

Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson is in line to get a second term despite being a thorn in the side of the last two mayors after a key City Council committee endorsed his reappointment Tuesday. The new four-year term would start next month, but aides to Mayor Rahm Emanuel contend that Ferguson plans to serve only an additional year so he can see through a new City Hall hiring protocol aimed at ending decades of federal court oversight. The decision on whether and when to leave is Ferguson's alone, however, and the City Hall watchdog didn't appear before the Budget and Government Operations Committee at Tuesday's hearing.

Chicago Inspector General Joseph Ferguson is in line to get a second term despite being a thorn in the side of the last two mayors after a key City Council committee endorsed his reappointment Tuesday. The new four-year term would start next month, but aides to Mayor Rahm Emanuel contend that Ferguson plans to serve only an additional year so he can see through a new City Hall hiring protocol aimed at ending decades of federal court oversight. The decision on whether and when to leave is Ferguson's alone, however, and the City Hall watchdog didn't appear before the Budget and Government Operations Committee at Tuesday's hearing.

Given the choice between recognizing the efforts of chemical weapons inspectors and those of a Pakistani teenager who campaigned publicly in the Swat Valley for the education of girls despite death threats from the Taliban, was shot in the head as a result and is now continuing her campaign after recovering, I know whom I would have chosen for this year's Nobel Peace Prize: Malala Yousufzai. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has a good case, and nothing should be taken away from its staff.